Three years after recounting the trauma of a reporter and the sexual awakening of a teenager in ‘Maya’, French director Mia Hansen-Løve is back with a proposal that seems light but hides a real game of mirrors in which she reflects on the loves reciprocated at the wrong timecreative crises, marital relationships, mythomania about famous people or the artist’s separation from his work in ‘Bergman’s Island’, presented in the Official Selection of the 74th Cannes Film Festival.
The director’s penultimate feature film, returning to Cannes this year to present ‘Un beau matin’, Hansen-Løve embarks on an exercise that is committed to portraying the creative process of a wedding of filmmakers, admirers of Ingmar Bergman, who decide to find inspiration on the island of Fårö, where he lived until his death on July 30, 2007. Although the director said she chose to direct in English to avoid it being seen as an autobiographical film, impossible not to see some inspiration from one’s life in the relationship that is established between the protagonists, Chris and Tony, whose age difference further affects the sentimental bond that Hansen-Løve had with Olivier Assayas, with whom he was 26 years apart. .
While some wear and tear can be felt in the couple, Hansen-Løve avoids reflecting on the marital crisis of a duo of directors. On the contrary, it is interesting how you represent the different ways of creating both and how the block it suffers is the only one that can solve it. Here you can see the different facets of the same person, showing both as directors, he is also a filmmaker with a long international career and who is welcomed on the island with a preferential and different treatment from that of other tourists. Secondly, Hansen-Løve considers the extent to which a work of fiction is based on the author’s experiences in reality.
That’s where it comes in a powerful game of mirrors, as within the film itself a film emerges, in which the character played by Vicky Krieps tells the script he is preparingin which he tells of a tortuous relationship marked by adolescence, in which the couple never manages to meet, because when they were young, they were “too soon” fall in love but when they met again, “it was too late”. A hypnotic duality is constructed in this story, which gives the feature film an unexpected depth.inviting to reflect on the attraction of spoiled bonds and on how these are the ones that then serve as inspiration for artistic works.
A sublime exercise of film in cinema
Both in Chris’ creative crisis and in the story he tells, two charming couples are captured. On the one hand, there are Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth. The Luxembourg actress has that innate magnetism that mixes mischievous curiosity, mature serenity and desire to know, recalling his contemporary Anaïs Demoustier. Krieps is answered by Roth, who seems undaunted by his wife’s adversity, but who hides a laissez-faire that should belong to him in a balanced relationship. On the other hand, there are Anders Danielsen Lie and Mia Wasikowska, who serve to demonstrate that art is the ideal channel to carry the most primary passions and emotions. Both reproduce a stormy relationship that gives the film a passionate touch, which once again reminds us that cinema should not be the complete reproduction of reality, but rather an intellectual trompe l’oeil.
And in between, Bergman. Impossible not to feel that the film is enveloped in his anguished and unpleasant gaze, which contrasts with the beautiful calm of the island. The spirit of the director of “Persona”, “Cries and Whispers”, “Fanny and Alexander”, “The Seventh Seal” or “The Maiden’s Spring” is felt in every moment. While it sounds profane, it’s as if the director himself was watching his legacy, even if that meant a sentence to hell, in the words of the famous director, who hated watching his own films.
Hansen-Løve continues to establish herself as one of the most interesting filmmakers on the French scene and her generation. ‘Bergman’s Island’ is an authentic game of mirrors in which he paints a profound and multifaceted portrait of art, marital relationships and passionate instincts. A proposal that has a magnificent cast, exquisite photography (the work of Denis Lenoir) and a calm rhythm that allows the public to be pervaded by this artistic reflection (to the rhythm of ABBA included).
Note: 8
The best: The moment in which the script written by the protagonist enters the scene.
Worse: Some moments of humor seem out of place.
Source: E Cartelera
